Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods (Eldrick Woods), 1975-, American golfer, b. Cypress, Calif. The son of a African-American father and a Thai mother, he was a college star at Stanford and became the only three-time (1994-96) U.S. amateur champion before turning professional in 1997. Seeming to justify publicity promoting him as the "future of golf," Woods won the 1997 Masters in a runaway. After mixed success in 1998, he won the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Championship and again dominated golf in 1999. In 2000, Woods won the U.S. and British opens and PGA Championship, setting or tying several records in the process and becoming the youngest of only five golfers to achieve a career Grand Slam. Woods's victory at the Masters in 2001 made him the first golfer to win all four major professional championships in a row. He has since won the Masters (2002, 2005), U.S. Open (2002, 2008), British Open (2005-6), and PGA Championship (2006-7) twice, and achieved more than 50 tournament victories by age 30, a PGA record. In 2007 he won the inaugural FedEx Cup, a four-tournament championship.

Woods, ‘Tiger’ ( Eldrick) (1975– ) US golfer. Woods won the US amateur championship three times (1994, 1995, 1996) before turning professional. In 1997 he won his first major title, the US Masters at Augusta. He won with the lowest-ever total score and by the largest margin of victory. In doing so he became not only the youngest player to win a Masters, but also the first black man to do so. Although he did not win any further major titles in 1997, by early 1998 he was ranked no.1 in the world. In 1999, he won the US PGA title. In 2000, he held the PGA title and won the British and US Opens. In 2001, he won the US Masters for a second time and became the first golfer to hold all four major titles at once. In 2002 he won the US Open and the US Masters again, becoming the third person, after Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo, to win it back to back.